Pray for Louisiana, crushed by our sin

May 27, 2010

Are you praying for Louisiana?

I have never been to Louisiana, but I imagine how the coast and wetlands play a vital role in natural and human history. The varieties of ecosystems. The important fishing industry and other forms of business. The beauty of creation, appreciated by so many. My mind has trouble wrapping around how the Gulf oil spill will play out for years to come.

The natural/human story is vast. Sometimes to get perspective on a complex system is, it helps to look at one creature, or one individual. Here is one individual, Congressman Charlie Melancon of Louisiana. “These are America’s wetlands.”

In addition to praying for Louisiana and the entire Gulf region, may I ask for prayer for:

Employees of BP. Man, it must suck to work there.

The families of those who lost their lives in the accident. It will always be personal to them.

Ourselves.

Why ourselves? Because as much as the company its procedures need to be investigated and held accountable, the truth is, they are there because we asked them to be there. We need the oil in order to continue our lifestyles of consumption. (Recommended reading: Exiles: Living Missionally in a Post-Christian Culture by Mike Frost takes on a variety of surprising topics, including how we deal with runaway corporate power and environmental sustainability.)

So let us pray. In fact, I invite you to write out your prayer as a comment below.

4 responses to Pray for Louisiana, crushed by our sin

I don’t know what to pray. My first instinct is to pray that all the people impacted by this disaster would find peace knowing that God is in control. But then I think about the fact that we caused this, by our consumerist culture, so maybe I should pray that we would all be fully focused on God and not get caught up by the things the world tries to sell us. But realistically, I’m not going to change my driving habits at all as a result of what happened, or at least at this moment I have no plans to. I could pray that God would introduce more wisdom, courage and responsibility into the systems that oversee the oil companies, but what I really want to pray for is that God would miraculously insulate all of his creatures from the detrimental effects of this terrible leak and that people would recognize this protection as a sign of God’s power and grace and glorify Him.

Father, please help us because our hearts are never satisfied with things–we always want more. Now we have made a mess of your creation. We have reached beyond the good land you have given us and soiled the seas. Please show us how to return to you and care for creation anew.

Leah, Chad, Ray: Amen.
Leah, I would add that I want to be open to the Lord’s leading on how to buck the consumeristic tide. It is so strong, we hardly notice it. Driving habits are part of it, but only a part.